Great Bear Wilderness The sentinels

The Alpha female was transfixed for the first time in her life. The conifers that stood sentinel over this place towered over any other pine she had ever seen. Some of the ponderosas reached the lofty height of the sequoias she had once lived by in Horizon Ridge. She was just contemplating how long they must have been standing there undisturbed when Mordecai's soft voice trilled from behind, summoning his leader's attention.

She turned to him with a gentler expression than she had worn when she left the mountain that morning. She didn't fault him for following her. If anything, she faulted herself for not noticing for so long, and chocked it up to frustration consuming her. “This place must be hundreds of years old,” she said with a long look of wonder over her pack mate's face. “I was searching for something when I left today. Something that might prevent these recent episodes of stress upon the pack. I did not expect to find this, though.”

In truth, the Alpha had expected to maybe find a herd of bison that they could hunt, but this land had captured her greedy attention for now. Surely there were moose in these vast, ancient woods, and a moose was just as good as a bison for the Alpha female, who had never before tasted their elusive flesh. Already, the beginnings of a plan were formulating in her mind, but she wouldn't give voice to it yet.